Darnell Nurse isn't interested in a long-term deal with the Edmonton Oilers

Darnell Nurse’s agent Anton Thun knows they can’t doctor the Edmonton Oilers’ tight salary cap, so there’s virtually no chance the restricted free-agent defenceman and his camp would be interested in a long-term contract at this time.

The Oilers have only $4.98 million in cap space with two players to sign — Nurse and possibly another forward.

As of now, the National Hockey League club has 13 forwards, six defencemen and two goalies signed for their maximum 23-man NHL roster with goalie Al Montoya’s $1.1 million contract possibly buried in the minors with $37,500 counting against the 2018-19 cap.

The Oilers are likely looking at a two-year bridge deal.

“They’ve sent us a proposal and we’ll see where that goes,” said Thun. “I don’t see with their cap space being what it is that they can entice us with much term.”

How much would Oilers spend? Well, they just gave third-line centre Ryan Strome a two-year deal at $3 million and $3.2 million, and Nurse was a top four defenceman this past season, averaging 22:14 a game. It’s unlikely Thun would want less than that.

Nurse’s play in the first half of the season was stronger than in the second half, but he still had 26 points, which led all the Oilers blueliners, and he got very little power play time. He’s got important intangibles that will always be there — he’s tough, he can skate, he can kill penalties— but the Oilers will argue that if Andrej Sekera returns to form after his major knee surgery set him back last season, Nurse could be in the third pairing with Matt Benning. So how much is that worth?

Maybe the Oilers look at what the Columbus Blue Jackets gave young Markus Nuutivaara ($2.7 million), a possible second-pairing defender, and that’s their pitch.

“At the end of the day, Peter (GM Chiarelli) and (cap specialist) Bill Scott control their cap space and their decisions,” said Thun. “They bought out Eric Gryba to add another player (50-man protected list) which cut into their cap and they signed the European goalie (Mikko Koskinen) for two-million and change, and that did the same to their cap space.”

If Nurse keeps progressing, maybe he becomes a $5- to $6-million player.

“If they’ve got $5 million in cap space (now), it’s not going to be a long-term deal,” said Thun.

A lot of agents are less inclined to sign their guys to seven and eight-year contracts to stay with their current teams now if the cap keeps going up. Five years might be more palatable.

On the bench

The Oilers never showed interest in signing local product Tyler Ennis to the $650,000 contract he just got from Toronto Maple Leafs. They were likely in the group of teams, though, that wanted ex-Chicago Blackhawks winger Anthony Duclair, who signed in Columbus. The list of possible depth forwards out there includes Scottie Upshall, Drew Stafford, Lance Bouma, Nick Shore and Jason Chimera. But they might just invite some forwards to camp on tryouts and see what happens instead … Koskinen is going to wear Patty Maroon’s old No. 19, according to the Oilers website. Has there ever been an NHL goalie wearing that number? Nineteen Oilers have worn it, none of them goaltenders … Ex-Edmonton Oil Kings GM Randy Hansch officially started work with the Buffalo Sabres on July 1 as a Western amateur scout … Kelly Buchberger, who has two years left on his contract, was helping out at the New York Islanders’ development camp, so maybe he’ll be on new head coach Barry Trotz’s coaching staff. Luke Richardson (assistant in Montreal) and Greg Cronin (head coach in Colorado AHL) have left after Doug Weight was let go as head man … Steve Hamilton, the former Oil Kings head coach, might join ex-Oilers assistant Ian Herbers’s staff with U of Alberta Golden Bears. Serge Lajoie, who coached the Bears for three years, went to the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, and he’s taking his Bears assistant Dan Kordic with him … The Oilers Entertainment Group’s Syncrude Oil Country Championship at Petroleum Club later this month — part of the MacKenzie-PGA Tour — might be the last under their sponsorship.

There’s still one major fish for the Edmonton Oilers to sign, and that’s restricted free agent Darnell Nurse, the defenceman who has shown much promise on the back-end and who could very well blossom into a top-pairing NHL blueliner.

But right now, the Oilers aren’t in a position to sign Nurse to a long-term deal, so look for them to come to terms on a bridge contract.

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